Poll

Law and Courts

The body found east of Otter Creek by hunters on Friday afternoon, Jan 18, has been identified that of DeAnna Lee Stires, 18, of Brooksville who was reported missing on Jan. 1, according to a Levy County Sheriff's Office press release.

"Hopefully this will provide some closure for some friends to the south, said Lt. Scott Tummond, head of investigations for the Levy County Sheriff's Office.

K. M. of Old Town writes, “I’ve got a question…last month you wrote about taking a gun into a bar being illegal, but taking a gun into a restaurant wasn’t, if you have a concealed weapon permit. What about a knife? What’s the rule there?

Cedar Key police were kept on the run Memorial Day weekend when two people — an 18-year-old man and a juvenile — from Chiefland broke into several cars and at least one, possibly two homes in the Paroda, Whiddon and Shellcrest avenues area.
But the thefts are on the way to being solved with the arrest of one person and the search for a second person — a juvenile, said Police Chief Virgil Sandlin.

Levy County Sheriff’s Lt. Shawn Hunt has been named to the first Agriculture/Marine Unit in the department.
Citizens have never had a full-time Ag/Marine Investigator to work with farmers, timber business owners and clam farms in Cedar Key. The duties will consist of investigating any Ag-related crimes, educating the farmers by giving crime prevention tips and community policing

In response to two deaths involving riders on ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) the Levy County Sheriff's Office has issued a reminder about laws governing the vehicles' use and offered some safety tips to prevent users from being a victim of an ATV accident.
In 2006 the Florida Legislature passed a law allowing ATV's to be operated on any public roads or streets during the daytime hours on an unpaved roadway where the posted speed limit is less than 35 miles per hour by a licensed driver.

C. C. of Cedar Key writes: “I fell behind on my child support payments and the State of Florida’s Department of Revenue suspended my driver’s license. It’s going to take me a month or so before I’ll be able to get it back. I can still drive my Golf Cart around the city of Cedar Key, can’t I?”

Some folks might say Brian Smetana, 19, just had a bad weekend. The Otter Creek resident is in Levy County Jail after being arrested twice — once on a charge of shooting into an occupied dwelling and, the second time after being found naked in the bedroom of a 15-year-old — in less than 24 hours.

When the City of Cedar Key Police Department started training their officers on the police bike protocol, nobody guessed that their most recent drug arrest would come courtesy of the bicycles and no seat belts.

On April 13, two Cedar Key Police Officers — Perry and Cosseboom — were with Levy County Sheriff's Detective Roger Bell getting familiar with the new police bikes early in the evening. They were in the Jernigan Avenue area and noticed a car approaching with two men in the front seat who were not wearing seat belts.